Two low-magnitude aftershocks occurred during the early hours of this Thursday following the 3.9 earthquake, recorded last night behind Deserta Grande and which was felt on land, especially among the inhabitants of the eastern part of Madeira Island.
After the magnitude 4.0 (Richter) earthquake – which has since been corrected by the IPMA to 3.9 – and whose epicenter was located approximately 8 km east-northeast of Deserta Grande, at 11:19 pm (local time) on Wednesday, an aftershock was recorded by the seismic network of the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), after 6 hours.
As DIÁRIO reported in its digital edition this morning, the 1.4 magnitude micro-earthquake (Richter scale) occurred at 5:18 am (local time), at a depth of 10 kilometers and at a distance of approximately 9 kilometers from the location where the epicenter of last night’s earthquake occurred.
Just over two hours later, this morning, at 7:32 am (local time), another micro-earthquake, of the same magnitude (1.4), was recorded by the IPMA national network just 3 kilometers from the location where the 3.9 earthquake occurred, behind Deserta Grande.
Both micro-earthquakes, considered aftershocks of the larger magnitude earthquake, were not felt on land.
According to information released by IPMA, last night’s earthquake, located 12 kilometers deep and 12 kilometers east of Deserta Grande, did not cause personal or material damage and was felt with maximum intensity III (modified Mercalli scale) in the municipality of Santa Cruz (Madeira Island).